The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1887-06-16

VantaSeS OF the North. Ihoy have cheal
r coal, skilled labor, experience in man
agement, ample capital seeking invest
ment at o low rate of interest. The,
have giant establishments, filled witt
the most improved labor-saving machin
4, cry and run on scale where expenses
are reduced to O minimum. They are
, located in dense population who sup
ply local demand for their products
They are located near the great CONNER.
} cial emporiums and can place their sur
plus products on the market at the least
possible expense, and they have very
favorable freight rates. These advant-
ages enable the great factories of the
North to manufacture goods cheaper
than our infant factories can possibly do,
80 great are these advantages that
even John Stuart Mill, the great apostle
OF free trade, admits that some govern
mental protection is necessary to the es-
adjustment of factories when they have
TO compete with q country whose facto-
r1es have an established business and
whose processes of work have become
traditional. The infant factories of the
North required and secured a heavy
protection against the established facto-
ries of England To-day they bear to
us the same relation which the old Eng
l1sh factories boro to them O century
ago. Our factories cannot hope for the
protection which would build the m up.
Both the free trade sentiment of our
! people and the Constitution of tho
United States prohibit any import duty
against Northern goods.
But surely it is not demanding too
much to ask the protection which nature
gives us-the protection of distance?
Surely it is not asking too much to de-
mand that the products from factories
shall be distributed throughout our own
State as cheaply as the products of for
elgn competitors? Surely it is not re-
curing too much to demand that the
railroads, built frequently at the expense
of the people, for the development of
the State, shall not use their power of
unfair discrimination to- crush and ruin
the struggling Industries of the State.
and drain her wealth into the Golfers of
foreign rivals?
DEPRESSING THE FARMERS
The effect of this policy is hardly less
hurtful to the farmers. Exceedingly low
through rates have induced the neglect
of all other crops, and the almost eScln.
slve culture of cotton. This brings in
its train extravaganza and debt, and in
the end dishonesty. When the people
raised their own supplies they had less
money, but they needed less. They had
enough to purchase the comforts Of life,
which they did not produce, and to pay
| their honest debts. Now, when the
people raise cotton only, thcy make
more money; their pockets are full if
their barns are empty. Tho money all
comes in at one season. They are rich
then, if poor all the balance Of the year.
While they have tho money they squan-
der 1T needle:sly, and before the year ex-
pires are compelled to go in debt for the
necessarlcs of life. And so the next
years crop must go to pay for last years
living, and system of debt has been
saddled on the country which has
brought it to the verge Of bankruptcy.
Who can foresee tie result of one more
crop failure?
OUR INTERNAL COMMERCE.,
Tho internal commerce Of the State
has been ruined, and the growth of our
rising cities has been checked by this
same ruinous policy. The prosperity of
cities hangs on the will of the railroad
autocrats. They can cause business to
How into it, or to go elsewhere. They
focused advantages at q country cross
road in Georgia and Atlanta sprang ND
teemlng with enterprise and wealth. 4
withdrawal of these advantages would
dissipate her business, and her prospcri-
ty would be dream of tho past. Ten
years ago 1t was the policy Of the rail
roads to build up the internal commerce
of this State. Favoring through rates
were glvon to railroad centres and cheap
distributing rates. In O single decade
Spartanburg doubled her business and
tripled her population; wholesale houses
were established and supplied the local
trade for miles around. Her goods were
sold within twenty miles of Atlanta.
Within the past seven years this en-
courdgement to wholesale internal COM
merce has boon withdrawn and the bust
ness has persisted. Concessions have
been made to no distributing points ex-
cept Charleston and Columbia, where
proximity to water compelled it. But
even these have been deprived of what is
moro lmportant-their cheap distribut-
ing rates.
IhE Wholesale TRADE OF THE INTERIOR.
again take Spartanburg as O type of
her sister cities In 1881 the rate on
fertilizers from Spartanburg to Wellford,
on the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line
or to Pacolet, on tho Spartanburg and
Union Road, was $3.50 o carload; now
1t is $3.50, an increase of nearly 200
per cent. The local trade has been de-
} stroyed.
In 1881 the freight on -four to Pacolet
was l6 cents barrel, now 1t is 80 cents;
on bacon it was $40 carload, now it is
$36. SO eXorbitant is this local freight
that the people have been compelled to
resort to wagon transportation. The
lowest freight on the Augusta and Spar
tanbur8 Road to Campobello, eighteen
miles above Spartanburg, is So a ton;
first. class freight is 81 a ton. Wagons
will haul it, without regard to class, for
So per ton free of dreyage, and are
monopolizing the mercantile business.
! Until recently the rate on cotton from
Campobello was 70 cents bale, while
the wagons were eager to carry it at 80
cents q bale.
GrconVille and the other cities Of
r Upper Carolina arc i'll like condition.
: In the seventh report of the South
q. Carolina railroad commission is publish
ca correspondence between President
2 Haskell, OF the Columbia and Greenyille